I bet you’re wondering why I’m holding up a chocolate chip cookie in this blog post’s header image.

Believe it or not, this is today’s business tip and it has something to do with your website – but not in the way you might be thinking. This isn’t about “cookies”

Curious?

Not too long ago I was talking with a business acquaintance.

We were basically just catching up on life – but before long, we got to talking about his business – and in particular, some of his current business challenges.

My friend has had his own tech firm for a little more than ten years and it had been growing pretty well up until the past couple years.

While we were talking, he’d mentioned that they’d just completely rebuilt and relaunched their website.

So, me being me, I went to their site and started browsing around a little.

And, while he was giving me some details about some of his website challenges I jumped in and said

“Hey Evan,” (not he real name by the way)

“Could you do me a favor? Explain for me – in your own words – what it is that you guys do.”

He had a pretty good – but still very technical – explanation that generally lined up with what I thought I knew about his business.

“So I’m on your homepage right now.

And I gotta tell you. It’s really cool looking! Like something out of The Matrix or maybe the Space-X Command center.

But I don’t see anywhere on this page anything close to what you just told me.”

It was completely silent on the other end of our Zoom call. And after a few seconds he said,  “well… that’s over in the “Capabilities” section.”

I said, “well, why are you hiding that over there? Give me a second and let me look at that.”

Again, another REALLY cool looking page with several tabs that explained in really technical detail, and A LOT of words what they did, as well as some of the awards and recognition they’d received.

For me, this felt like I was reading something from a Technology or Physics journal.

I finally said “Evan, let’s suppose that I’m your target customer and I actually understand all of this stuff. And you’ve convinced me that need to do business with you. How do I do this?”

Another one of those silent moments. I could hear him trying to figure this out and I could sense he was starting to see my point.

He said, “I guess that isn’t all that clear is it. We do have ‘Contact‘ up in the main menu. And our phone number is in the header and footer of every page.“

So my next question was this, “Do you guys want me to call or just submit my information on the form?”

Evan said they’d actually prefer a call because they convert better when someone does call.

My next statement was so straight forward that it caught him off guard.

“OK, so you want me to call.

Why aren’t you asking me to call somewhere or anywhere?

The number at the top of the page is just a number. It doesn’t even have a phone icon. Why aren’t you at least saying, ‘Give Us a Call’ or ‘Contact Us’ or ‘Call Now’ where the phone number is?”

After I bounced around a few more pages on their website, I said,

“So here’s my two-cents worth. I think one of the biggest issues with your website is lack of Clarity.

When you explained what it is that you guys did, it generally made sense to me, but even then, I wasn’t sure how that would help me, and it was still a little fuzzy.

I actually think what you said is a great starting point, but that needs to be simplified more.

That statement has to be crystal clear, and it needs to make me interested in learning more about how you can help me.

Once you get this explanation nailed down, that needs to be one of the first things – if not THE FIRST THING I see when I hit your homepage.

I also think this should be all over your website – and especially on your Contact page.”

Then I said – “And I think you need to have a huge button right in my face on your homepage inviting me to call and make my life better immediately or something like that.”

Alright so here’s today’s tip and this is where the Cookie comes in.

An early mentor of mine once told me, ‘If you want a cookie, you need to ask for a cookie. Don’t sit there hoping I’ll give you one.’

If I’m coming to your website, I’m the dude with the cookies.

You need to be asking me for them – every chance you can!

A couple weeks after my call with Evan, I went back out to their website to see if they’d made any changes. I knew that many of the things we discussed would take some time, so I wasn’t expecting to see a whole new homepage. But sure enough, his team had already improved their calls to action – making it Clear that they wanted me to call and made it easy for me to do it.

Just remember sometimes if you want a cookie, you have to ask for it!

And that’s today’s tip for creating your NEXT LEVEL of profitable growth through CLARITY, ALIGNTMENT and CONSISTENCY.

Oh, and if you’d like the cookie recipe, leave a comment below.